Veteran appeal

THE day before the Democratic Party convention opened in Boston, John Kerry made a flying visit to his home team's baseball stadium to throw the first pitch of a game. The catcher was a fatigue-clad National Guardsman back from Iraq and Afghanistan. The next day, 1,000 veterans crammed into a hotel to roar their support for the nominee. When he arrived formally to accept his party's presidential nomination, Mr Kerry crossed Boston Harbour in a boat filled with those who, 35 years before, had sailed the Mekong Delta with him in Swift patrol boats. And to introduce the speech itself (which took place after The Economist went to press), there were two veterans: Jim Rassman, a Green Beret whom Mr Kerry had pulled out of the river while under fire, and Max Cleland, a former senator who lost three limbs in combat.